


Two By Two

by Rodent



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Apocalypse, Multi, its real subtle fluff sorry if you were looking for something more overt ahhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 14:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6523468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodent/pseuds/Rodent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Her Imperious Condescension has returned to earth, ergo WWIII, here we come. Aradia and Dave go roadtripping to pick up Sollux and hopefully escape to the boonies somewhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two By Two

**Author's Note:**

  * For [awespic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/awespic/gifts).



There was a dead bird on the sidewalk when Sollux Captor got home.

It was one bigass motherfucker - easily a foot long, with wings bent at odd angles, like a misshapen compass pointing god knows where. Its feathers, dull, quickly losing their glossy sheen with the dying light of the day, were ruffled haphazardly. Fractals, Sollux Captor thought absently as he stepped over the body and unlocked his door. Wings bent on body and feathers bent on wings. No, feathers bent on wings bent on body. 

Sollux closed the door behind him, tapping the handle twice as it clicked shut, and in the dim fluorescents of his apartment’s lobby he took a deep, measured breath. Like always, he pressed the elevator button exactly twice and made a beeline for the stair, worn soles tapping forlornly on the cement steps. 

The surface of the roof was still warm from the heat of the sun, which had long since set. Sollux crossed the roof, sat next to a set of buzzing boxes, and pulled a laptop out of his bag.

\- twinArmageddons [TA] began trolling turntechGodhead [TG] -

TA: hey man  
TA: you wouldnt beliieve the biiga22 dead crow ii found 2day  
TA: ii could ju2t iimagiine you jizzing your pant2 over it

He waited, cursor blinking expectantly on the text bar, but there was no response. Sollux glanced at the time and shut his laptop. As he did so, he felt it - a reverberation, thrumming through the air, a soundwave too low for him to pick up.

Then the rooftop lights blew out and everything went dark.

\---

It was too quiet.

  
Dave woke up immediately, simply from habit. He sat up too fast, head spinning - last night’s drinks catching up - and stumbled to the bathroom, trailing twisted sweaty sheets behind him. He splashed his face with cold water and took a deep breath before looking up into the grimy mirror to assess the damage.

  
It wasn’t as bad as he would’ve guessed, considering the amount of mai tai’s he’d downed the night before. No black rings around his bloodshot eyes, and only slightly nauseous -

  
There was another knock on the door, this one slightly louder and more frantic, and Dave realized that the initial sharp rapping was what had pulled him from sleep in the first place. He shoved his sunglasses on his face, stumbled to the front door, and wrenched it open.

  
“Have you been online at all today? Or turned on your TV?”

  
Dave blinked blearily at the troll. “Why, good morning to you too, dearest neighbor Aradia!” He said, mock-cheerful.

She frowned, most uncharacteristically. “It’s 2 in the afternoon.” She took off his sunglasses, flipped them over, and put them back on him right side-up before sweeping past him into his apartment. By the time he shut the door and followed her, the TV was already on.

The sound was muted, but he could still read headlines, and see gritty static-ridden coverage of sky-swamping red warships.

He swallowed audibly. “Oh. So are we talkin’ full-blown nuclear war yet, or are we still in the invade-and-conquer and pretend at subtleties stage? Because those are two completely different survival kits.”

That got a small smile out of her. “No one really knows all the details yet, but everyone knows that it’s not gonna be good, and -” She sucked in a breath. “You still have that van your brother left you, right?”

Dave ignored the wrench in his gut. “You mean the shit-mobile? Yeah, still got it. Why?”

“Can it get to California?”

He frowned. “I mean, yeah, probably. Why do you need to go to -” He stopped short, eyes widening behind his glasses. “Oh, fuck. Sollux.”

“Sollux,” she confirmed. “And, well, I can’t drive, and I don’t know how long public transportation will be available, and -”  
Dave raised a hand, stopping her short. “Say no more. No way in hell I’m leaving ol’ two-eyes hanging like this. Bros stick together in nuclear apocalypse.”

Aradia raised her eyebrows. “Two-eyes? Isn’t it four-eyes?”

“Well, yeah,” Dave clarified. “But you know him and his whole two thing.” He smirked. “I would say that he’s leading a double life but I don’t think he has even one.”

“Dave!” Aradia admonished. “That’s rude.”

He stuck his tongue out at her. “I’m yankin’ your chain. When do we leave? ‘Cause I’m ready to go.” He swallowed again, tasting last night’s mistakes and cocktails. “Right as rain.”

“Don’t you need to pack?”

“I’ve got all the essentials ready to go anyways,” he said, shrugging. “Always do. Being raised by a paranoid conspiracy theorist will do that to a person. So I’m ready when you are.”

She nodded slowly, hair bobbing around her horns. “Alright. Soon, then. I’m just. . . I worry about him.”

Dave thought about Sollux, spikey surly Sollux, psiionically gifted Sollux. “I think he can take care of himself ‘til we get out there.”

\---

They loaded up the shit-mobile together under the glaring Texas sun.

“The faster we get out of here, the better,” Aradia said as she pulled the set of back seats down flush into the floor of the van. “No one knows how long the veneer of normalcy will last.”

“You sound like Rose.”

She stuck out her tongue. “Is that a bad thing?” She paused, hefting one of her duffel bags into the now-cleared back. “What about Rose?”

“What about her?” He tossed another one of her bags in and dragged a hand across his brow, feeling the beaded sweat smear.

“Will she be okay?”

He snorted. “Honestly, if anyone needs rescuing, it’ll ultimately be us. She’ll be fine. Her and Jade and Kanaya are still living together, I think, and John’s not far from them; she just texted me that if we needed a place to crash at, her mom’s old place on the east coast is still vacant.”

“Is that the one in the middle of nowhere?”

Dave nodded and rolled his eyes behind his glasses as Aradia pulled out the comforter he’d haphazardly tossed in and began to fold it.

“That may be our best bet. You should tell her to join us out there, with whoever else she can scrounge up. The more secluded and hidden, the better off we’ll ultimately be.”

Dave nodded, and hesitated. “What about your friends? Tavros and the rest of them?”

Aradia waved one hand, patting the folded comforter in the back with the other. “He’s still with Vriska right now, I think.” She wrinkled her nose. “As much as I dislike her, she’ll watch his back. Even if she wouldn’t, you’d be surprised how well he can take care of himself - well, I mean, unless there’s something on a high shelf.” She bit her lip and put her hands on her hips, tapping one heel of her boot onto the pavement. “I think that was my last bundle. D’you need any help getting your stuff together and out here?”

Dave thought about his meager possessions - the portable turntable, his clothing, a toothbrush, his laptop, all already loaded up into the van. “Nah. I’m pretty set.”

Aradia shrugged. “Alright. I’m gonna make sure I have all my important books. I’ll be right back.”

Dave rolled his eyes and followed her up the stairs. “Just gonna lock the place up,” he said, as means of explanation. “Last thing I need is for some squatters to piss all over my carpets.”

Aradia snorted and waved as she continued up the stairs to her own apartment. Dave waited until she was out of eyeshot, then, instead of locking the apartment up, stepped inside and opened the hallway closet. It hadn’t been touched since he put its sole inhabitant in there for storage.

The katana’s sheath gleamed dully matte in the dim light. Dave reached out, hesitated, and grabbed it, feeling the dust and grit sticking to his fingers. He glanced outside, making sure Aradia hadn’t returned, before locking his front door and speed-walking down to the van.

Surreptitiously, he slid the sheath under the driver’s seat.

Better safe than sorry, even if he hated the fucking thing.

\---

The roads were hot, glaring, and completely devoid of life. Dave expected the panic would set in eventually and the streets would be flooded with people trying to go god knows where in an attempt to avoid the wrath of the Condescension herself; but for now, all was quiet.

Dave tapped the steering wheel impatiently, glaring daggers at the red light. Beside him, Aradia hummed tunelessly under her breath. Dave glanced to his right, then his left, then his left again as he took a double-take. “Be right back.” He grabbed something out of the back and dashed out of the car.

Aradia’s humming became a bit more nervous. She glanced every few seconds at the red eye of the traffic light.  
When Dave returned nothing had changed. She shot him a look.

“ATM machine in there,” Dave explained, tossing a lumpy duffel bag onto the space between them. “Planning on hitting every one of these babies that we pass until either my card runs out or they do.”

“Is it really smart to be carrying around that much cash?”

He snorted. “Uh, fuck yes, it is. Is it really smart to leave funds as numbers in a machine when the whole system could shut down any day now? Or when people will probably spend the next few days ransacking them? Yeah, no.”

She rolled her eyes.

They spent a few more minutes waiting at the deserted intersection; Dave could practically hear the transition elevator music, and the sun was starting to set. “Fuck it,” he declared, and gunned the accelerator.

Beside him, Aradia whooped, and for a moment, everything was right in the world.

The city gradually thinned out into suburbs and that into sand until, eventually, there was nothing at all - just two twenty-somethings and the desert, vast and cool and surprisingly bright, illuminated by innumerable stars and the glimmering belt of the Milky Way. 

“We should stop for the night,” Dave said eventually.

“D’you wanna pull off and try to find a motel?”

Dave snorted. “Fuck no. We’ll get robbed.” He gently eased the van off the road and into the desert before turning the key. The van powered down in a whir of dying pistons. “Blankets’re in the back. Go wild.”

Aradia stuck her tongue out at him. “You think we won’t get robbed out here?” She clambered over the divider into the back of the van anyways and was quick to burrito herself into the comforter. It was a little dusty, but it was heavy and had. . . a presence, something solid and tangible to her. It smelled a little bit like Dave did. She snuggled into it. “Toss me my phone?”  
Dave, who had watched with wide eyes as she attempted the risky maneuver in a skirt and was ultimately successful (to his. . .chagrin? Relief? He wasn’t totally sure how he was supposed to feel), reached into the passenger seat and tossed it to her.

“Careful about the battery life,” he warned.

She ignored him and opened her texting client.

\- apocalypseArisen [AA] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA] -

AA: hey sollux!! we’re on our way. 0u0  
AA: how are you holding up?  
TA: fiine  
TA: bu2y  
TA: ttyl

Aradia frowned at her phone, then exited the client and played tappy games for a bit. By the time her phone buzzed again, however, she’d placed it down on the divider and fallen fast asleep, the only thing visible out of the comforter being the top of her head and her horns.

Dave, who had been messing around with constellations in his head, glanced once at the buzzing device, once at the sleeping troll, and picked it up.

TA: ok 2orry aa iim back  
TA: 2ome a22hole2 were tryiing two break iinto my apartment  
TA: hello?  
AA: yo  
AA: this is aradias hot new boyfriend dave  
AA: i did her so hard that shes totally conked out, gone, goodbye, leave a message after the tone  
TA: fuckiing hiilariiou2, 2triider  
TA: giive the phone back plea2e  
AA: nah im not kidding about that part, shes actually asleep, sorry bro  
TA: fuck  
TA: how2 2he doiing?  
AA: shes doing great  
AA: kickin ass, takin names, yknow  
AA: as she does  
AA: not even phased  
TA: ii fiigured. 2he2 alway2 been good about thii2 2ort of bull2hiitery.  
AA: hasnt she been preaching end times since like, first grade  
TA: ii wouldn’t call iit preachiing, but.  
TA: ye2.  
AA: lmao  
AA: wish id been in grade school with her, her fun apocalypse stories and my dead things?  
AA: wed have been the dream team  
TA: yeah, more liike iinn your dream2, 2triider  
TA: ii bet you were a fuckiing weirda22 kiid  
AA: you got me  
AA: dave strider, freak extraordinaire, please tip the trainer  
AA: at least i wasnt toting around pokemon cards until the age of 20 like they were still cool  
TA: oh, plea2e, liike YOU diidnt do that  
TA: we were roomate2, remember  
TA: ii know everythiing  
AA: shit, you got me, fuck  
AA: foiled again  
AA: now sollux will NEVER think im a coolkid  
AA: because i care about solluxs opinion, sollux, the kid who watches lets plays on youtube for fun  
AA: who even does that instead of playing the actual games yourself  
AA: well, unless you were trying to figure out how to do speed runs  
TA: pfft, fuck no, ii wa2 tryiing two fiigure out gliitche2 and ea2ter egg2  
TA: 2ome of them are fuckiing hiilariious  
AA: yo what the hell  
AA: thats surprisingly neat

Something howled off in the distance. Dave shivered despite himself and reached under his seat. The handle of the katana - his katana - was cool and smooth in his grasp.

AA: tell me about some of them  
TA: what?  
AA: tell me about some of the glitches  
AA: im curious  
AA: i was always a hidden boss speed demon kinda dude  
TA: well. .

Good lord, could Sollux talk when he wanted to (Two? Dave smirked a little). Minutes passed as the little “twinArmageddons is typing. . .” message hovered below their conversation. Dave blinked as the phone screen filled with paragraphs upon paragraphs.

AA: well i may have skimmed over that a little  
AA: still neat as fuck though  
TA: ehh fuck off 2triider  
AA: nah im kidding bro, well have to fuck around with that stuff when we find our commune  
TA: where are we headiing?  
AA: roses moms old place in new york  
AA: itll be swell  
AA: we can raise cows and grow radishes  
TA: ii awaiit our dome2tiic farm liife wiith baiited breath.  
TA: but for now iim gonna barriicade the door2 and try to get 2ome 2leep, 2ugge2t you do the 2ame  
AA: pfffffft whatever, sleep is for the weak  
TA: not when youre driiviing my be2t friiend a miilliion miile2 iit ii2nt  
TA: get 2ome 2leep dude  
TA: gniight  
AA: see you soon bro  
AA: night sollux

\- twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling apocalypseArisen [AA] -

Dave could see the first pink tinges of sunlight off on the horizon, washing the desert in smears of pastel. All was quiet.  
He shut his eyes.

. . . and woke up six hours later when he shifted wrong and his his head on the horn. He jerked backwards, hissing between tightly clenched teeth.

“Good morning, sunshine!” Aradia chirped from the back. “Where are we hitting for breakfast?”

“I almost gave myself fuckin’ whiplash and you’re concerned about where we’re gonna eat soggy waffles and drink dishwater coffee?”

“Yep!” She clambered back into the front seat. She looked sleepy, but chipper; her hoodie and peasant skirt had a crinkled, slept-in look to them now, and her curly hair was wild, sticking up in all directions. Dave had to admit that she was excessively adorable and completely understood why Sollux had fallen face-first into the fuckin’ pavement for her.

“When the world starts spinning around me from my inevitable concussion I’m blaming you.” He turned the key in the ignition; the van spluttered to life, hacking and wheezing, and they pulled back onto the interstate. Rest stop signs were few and far between, so it was another hour before they were able to pull off into a small desert town. 

“What a weird name for a town,” Aradia said as they passed a large, sun-faded and washed out sign emblazoned with ‘WELCOME TO TUBA CITY’.

“If they don’t have any tubas in the diner I will be excessively disappointed.”

The diner had no tubas, and Dave was excessively disappointed. They also had lackluster hash browns and weak coffee. Even Aradia, bright chipper Aradia, was not impressed.

So they moved on.

Dave shifted the radio periodically from station to station as they passed through radio zone after radio zone; Drake to mariachi was quite the mood whiplash and oddly inspiring to Dave for turntable antics.

Aradia, meanwhile, was crocheting.

“Ugh,” said Dave. “You’re reminding me of my sister.”

“This is crocheting, not knitting,” Aradia reminded. “And I figured, hey, we’re all probably going to be camping out in the middle of nowhere while the apocalypse blows over; might as well get started on our winter sweaters.”

“Make mine have star-shaped nipple windows, please,” Dave instructed. Aradia saluted.

“Aye aye, captain.” She giggled.

The mariachi was still playing, cheery and upbeat, like the world wasn’t ending and an invading empress wasn’t about to attempt to. . . harvest their livers, or something. Now that he thought about it, he really had no idea what was going on.

“So I’m no political wizard. What exactly is happening? Like, what does she gain by invading here? Isn’t here where she dumped some revolutionaries to start a prison colony?”

Aradia nodded. “Technically, yeah. ‘Course, then they rebelled in the 1800s, but there’s still been some pretty close connections between Earth Trolls and Alternian ones for trade and whatnot.” She tapped her lower lip thoughtfully, and opened her mouth to say something else -

There was a roar of motorcycles on either size of the van - Dave immediately counted up about six of them, weaving in and out of each other - and one accelerated up the road, swerving perpendicular to the van up ahead. Dave hesitated, considered gunning it, but ultimately slammed the breaks.

A grungy looking teen in a worn leather jacket swung himself off the bike and swaggered up to Dave’s window, tapping it with the barrel of his gun. Dave lowered the window.

“You really shouldn’t be riding without a helmet, y’know,” He drawled. “You might get hurt.”

The teen snorted. “Thas enough outta you, pal. Out of the car, and tell your hooker to start gatherin’ all the food and money you got.”

Dave quirked an eyebrow. “You think you’re hot shit, don’t ya?”

The kid poked Dave square in the chest with the barrel. Aradia inhaled sharply besides him. “Fuck yeah, I do. Outta the car.”  
Dave did as he was told. He heard Aradia slam the passenger side door as well. Someone jeered at her, and she spat something back before joining him in front of the van. 

The teen surveyed her disdainfully, leering. “Bitch, didn’t I tell you to clean out the van?”

Aradia smiled widely, baring her even white teeth. It didn’t quite extend to her eyes. “So you did.”

The youth was visibly unnerved but gestured again with the gun. His nose started to run; he wiped it with the back of his hand. “So get to it, I aint got all night - I’ll start fucking up your boyfriend here if you don’t -”

Aradia rolled her eyes. “Boring.” She reached out with one hand - Dave could practically see the movement branching out from her fingertips - and the gun was wrenched from his grasp and flew into hers. She spun it casually in her hand.  
The youth had turned bright red. “I - hey, give that back, we -”

“Stole it fair and square?” She quipped. “Cute.” She flicked her finger and the motorcycle blocking their path flew across the interstate, skidding into the sand and dirt of the desert. “We’ll be on our way.”

“Aradia,” Dave said as they got back into the van. “They’re just kids. Scared kids.”

She looked around. They were grungy and sad and hungry, and oh, were they young. So much younger than they first seemed - even the one with the gun couldn't have been more than fifteen.

She pulled a crumpled fifty out of her sweater pocket and chucked it at one of them. He caught it, stupor-like, and blinked at her behind his visor. “Keep the change. And stay out of trouble. We won’t be the meanest people you meet on these roads.”

Dave gunned the accelerator and Aradia watched a group of terrified youths recede into the distance. She flipped the pistol over in her hands, examining it.

“This kinda sucks.”

“Yeah.” Dave bit his lip. “Kids shouldn’t feel the need to resort to shit like that. Things’re already starting to get lawless - good thing we fucked off when we did. Who knows what things are like back home right now.”

“No, the gun.” She took out the clip and put it in the glove compartment, along with the now-empty pistol. “It’s a piece of trash.”

Dave huffed and didn’t reply, at first.  
“Let’s drive through the night tonight,” he said eventually. “That way we’ll get to Sollux by noon tomorrow.”

“Are you sure you’re up to it?”

Dave thought he could feel the mai tais again, even though that was a few days ago. “I’m peachy keen.”

Aradia bit her lip. “Well. I mean. If you’re sure.”

Dave nodded. “I’m sure.”

This far out in the desert, the only viable stations were now fuzzy classical and discount ‘90s pop. Dave went with the classical and rolled with Debussy under the bright desert moon.

\---

Something scraped against the door again, carving and grinding. Sollux swiveled in his chair and flipped his glasses up to rest on top of his head, right in front of his horns. He cracked his knuckles and. . . waited. If it, whatever it was, got through, he was ready. 

The only window he hadn’t boarded off was the one overlooking the streets, and the only way he could think to describe it was pandemonium. Shops were ransacked, cars were overturned, small fires burning - and things roaming the alleyways and side streets, hiding under tire-slashed cars and behind corners. You’d think them to be confined to darkness, considering how they looked and acted; and yet, there they were, hanging out around lunch time like they were at an all-you-can-eat twenty-four hour buffet. 

At first Sollux had hoped them benevolent. Then he watched one eviscerate a human being and quickly changed his outlook. From the sound of it, one of them was trying to get in.

He sucked on his lower lip thoughtfully, feeling the pinpoints of his teeth. He had his shit together all packed up and ready to go - maybe it would be a good idea to meet Aradia on the outskirts of the city where there would hopefully be less things to worry about. 

So he got his knapsack and experimentally rapped on his front door with one bony knuckle. He was answered by a full-body slam into the flimsy wood. He stumbled backwards, tense and ready, hair-trigger and trigger-fingered. The thing sat there, all sprawling ink and flashing teeth, in the wreckage of what was once a perfectly serviceable door, and howled. 

Sollux knew he would probably have to blast his way out.

And that was fine by him. It’d been too long.

“Bring it, asshole,” he lisped, and the thing launched itself into the air before vanishing in a blur of red and blue.

\---

Dave whistled, low and appreciative, under his breath as they approached the city - or, at least, what had once been a city. In a matter of days, the Silicon Valley hub had been reduced to a ghost town. They could see small fires burning even from this distance, and the constant blaring of alarms.

Dave glanced at Aradia; she was frowning, eyes narrowed. Dave immediately felt on edge. “Last time I saw you make that face was when you lost your job. What’s up?”

“There’s something here.”

“Probably refugees and the like.”

“No, something, not someone.”

“Spidey senses tingling?” Dave joked. “Leave the seances for your clients.” He glanced over again and his heart sank. as he saw her expression.

“That’s not funny, Dave,” she deadpanned.

“Okay, jeesh, sorry.” He tapped the steering wheel and bit his lip. “What do you think it -”

He was cut off as something large and dark and wet slammed into the windshield. Dave choked a little deep in his throat and slammed the brake, hastily rolling up the windows. “Um, Aradia? What in the name of fuck is that.”

She shook her head, eyes wide, watching the thing writhe and contort over the glass. “They’re not supposed to be here. How did she. . .”

He could see handprints on the glass somewhere in the mass, black inky things. There was a flash of teeth and - was that whispering? Dave unconsciously began to reach under the seat, moving to pull the katana out from its hiding place -

There was a blast of red and blue, only for a second, but Dave felt it press itself deep into his corneas, even through the sunglasses. As he blinked away afterimages, something tapped frantically on the window next to his head and he jerked, half-wrenching the sword from under him. Before he could react, Aradia was leaning across him and unlocking the doors. 

“Aradia, what are you -” he hissed, eyes squinted and blinking, trying to ignore how nice her hair smelled. She affectionately bonked him lightly with a horn. 

“It’s Sollux, you doofus.”

The back door the van slammed and Sollux was there, like an apparition, breath hot in Dave’s ear.

“Reverse,” he lisped, and Dave didn’t have to be told twice.

\---

They were fifty miles down the interstate before everyone’s adrenaline had burned up enough to talk.

Dave was the first to speak. “That was some next-level shit.”

“You’re telling me.” Sollux snorted. He was sprawled out in the back, all limbs and angles. He’d lost weight since they were roommates, which was saying something - he’d practically been skin and bones then.

Aradia had her knees pulled up to her chest and was pursing her lips, deep in thought. “Those were. . . not supposed to be here,” she managed. “They’re a form of demon. Google-fu says ‘the Next Ring’, though I’ve seen it called different things. I don’t know how they got here. But it’s definitely something to do with the invasion. I’m sure of it.” She sighed and shook her head, curls bouncing. “I never worked with them, but your sister did. Maybe she has some insight -”

Dave gripped the wheel too tightly for a moment, knuckles showing white. “Rose? Working with those things?”

Aradia was uncharacteristically solemn. “She’s dabbled in some dark shit. How else do you think she met Kanaya?”

For once, Dave was at a loss for words. “What a fucking mess,” he managed out, eventually. He shook his head.

“Hey, Sollux, are you doing okay?” Aradia tilted her head and peered over her shoulder when he didn’t respond. “Sollux?”

Dave tilted his rearview mirror down briefly - god knew there weren’t exactly any other cars on the road right now to worry about - and glanced into the back of the van. Sollux was still sprawled, but his eyes were closed and his mouth was slightly open. The dumbass spectacles he always wore (though Dave wasn’t sure he was one to talk) were propped up on his forehead, and his skinny chest rose and fell at a deep, regular pace. Aradia exhaled, mouth curved in a slight smile, and unbuckled her seat belt, prompting the indicator to start chiming.

“Hey,” Dave protested. “Watch it. This is some grade-A unsafe driving happening here.”

“Oh, can it,” Aradia cheerily shot back in a stage whisper, nearly falling over herself as she attempted to get into the back without landing on Sollux. Dave rolled his eyes as he watched her pull up the comforter and curl up next to Sollux.

Dave pulled over in the next hour or so. The two trolls behind him were out like lights, and without the benefit of music to help keep him awake, Dave knew he couldn’t keep driving for much longer. He spent a moment staring at the stars again, silently naming the stars in Orion’s belt and counting the pleiades, weighing his options in his head.

“Fuck it,” he mumbled aloud, taking off his sunglasses and placing them under his seat next to the katana before clambering over the divider himself and joining the two trolls in the back under the comforter.

Aradia smelled like books, Sollux smelled like honey, and Dave had another brief moment where everything felt right in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> i was gonna draw some art for this too but i forgot lol :U i might do that later. . . i had a ton of fun writing this, id never thought about these three before but MAN what a cute ship wow??? love.
> 
> it's pretty subtle fluff, whoops :"vv sorry ahh. . . it honestly doesn't feel quite done and may need another chapter eventuall if it keeps nagging at me, idk yet haha  
> also i have no clue how to format on this goddamn website (why can't we just import a doc whyyyy) so hopefully its legible ahhh
> 
> i hope you like it!!!


End file.
